
garretta
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[1991-10-27-WCW-Halloween Havoc] Steve Austin vs Dustin Rhodes
garretta replied to Loss's topic in October 1991
This felt like it was missing something. Austin and Dustin worked hard, but between the dead crowd and the lame saved-by-the-bell finish, it ended up less than it could have been, even for a TV title match. I liked the blood, which wouldn't have been allowed in a TBS match by this point (how Windham got away with it against Hughes I have no idea), and the cuts became a focal point of each man's aggression. I was actually more impressed by the first part of the match, because neither one of these guys is known for their chain wrestling acumen, but they really showed me something in that regard. I think this was Jeannie's last appearance in WCW; if it's not, she can't have more than one or two left. Talk about a missed opportunity. At one time she could legitimately have been called more of a stardom prospect in the sport than Steve. I understand that they were starting a family, which was probably the main reason we never saw her again, but WCW still could have done more with her while she was there. She was right down Dusty's alley, since he loved his blonde Jezebels. Imagine if she'd actually done enough to warrant JR's comment that she shouldn't be allowed at ringside. The slaps she gave Dustin here were just the tip of the iceberg. For all of his nice-sounding verbiage, I wonder how much of a clue Tony really has sometimes. He picked up on Dustin pounding the mat, but he made it sound as if Dustin did it just to be doing something. A commentator who was on the ball at all tines would have said something like, "He's trying to encourage a faster count, but that's not his job. He should be hooking the leg to make sure of a pin." Nice to see Dusty's mom as ringside. There are two things I'm wondering: 1) Was she smart to the business? and 2) If she was and knew Dusty was the booker, did she give him an earful about not making sure Dustin went over while she was there to see it? Bookers have put people over for far less important reasons than their grandmothers being at ringside. Can we get rid of the saved-by-the-bell finish, especially when it's as poorly executed as this one was? Dustin hit the flying clothesline with at least six seconds left, but since the finish was a draw, Randy Anderson just lounged in the corner until he was supposed to start his count, which just so happened to be with two seconds remaining. They should have had Dustin pounding Austin in the corner or something instead, or at least made it so Austin kicked out of the clothesline and left Dustin with no more time to try anything else. Nice point by Tony about Austin having enough stroke with the championship committee to demand Jeannie's presence at ringside. When he wanted to be, Tony could be an excellent color man, and not half-bad on play-by-play either. The problem was, he didn't want to be often enough. and his "want-to" fluctuated from match to match, and even sometimes within the same match, as was the case here I hope we see these two face off again once the Dangerous Alliance is up and running, because there's definitely some unfinished business between them.- 10 replies
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- WCW
- Halloween Havoc
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When I was in middle school, I used to fantasize that the WWF came to our high school gym with an all-star card. The hot feud at the time was Hogan-Orndorff, and I used to picture a brawl between the two of them that raged all over the building: cafeteria, science labs, classrooms, the whole bit. I used to think that that would be the coolest wrestling match ever. Well, now I've seen what a match such as that would really be like, and it was better in my imagination. Of course, my imagination didn't have the sloppiest, fuzziest camera work ever devised by man that kept me from not only seeing a lot of what the wrestlers did, but figuring out who was who. I guess the cameraman tried to an extent; we got some great shots when the fight actually left the gym briefly and went into the lockers, which is about as far into the academic wing of the building as this one got. But the last few minutes were atrocious, as the cameraman was running here, there, and everywhere and getting nothing for it. Of course, by then Sully had retired for the evening and left some nitwit whom I could barely see to take the rest of his lumps for him. I didn't catch the no-selling on Sully's part that some of you did, but I sure noticed that Eddie got the hell kicked out of him more than most wrestlers do in indy matches with two main event stars. Was that the price to get Sully to show up? Eddie did a great job playing the beaten-down babyface, whether by design or default, but given the havoc he's stirred up over these last two years I expected more of an even fight. In reality, it's hard to know what to think about this match due to the awful camerawork. Let's see them go at it in at least a semi-established non-indy promotion, then judge. Was this a Global TV title match? I know I saw Sully with a belt of some sort at one point, and he wasn't a champion anywhere that I can remember in late October of '91, so it had to be Eddie's Global TV belt. Who was the guy whom Eddie piledrove at the end, the one I called a nitwit up above? Maybe that was harsh, but he looked like a fan who wandered into the ring and got caught, which would indeed make him a nitwit, if not something worse.
- 6 replies
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- TWA
- October 26
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Tenryu looked like anything but a company ace here, as Takano took it to him at every turn for the vast majority of the match until Tenryu hit a pair of desperation lariats, then powerbombed Takano for the win. I know most aces wrestle like this at least occasionally in order to give the impression that they can be defeated on some glorious day in the not-too-distant future, but Tenryu looked washed up here, to be honest. There wasn't a bit of fire in him at any time except when he flung that chair into Takano's face. If Vince was looking at Tenryu as a possible challenger to Hogan for more than the occasional big Tokyo show (which he most likely wasn't), he would have changed his mind if he'd seen this stinker. Takano didn't have to do much to look good in comparison, but he turned in a solid performance, showing off some good-looking offense, particularly in terms of kicks. This one's worth checking out if you're a Takano/Cobra fan; if you're a Tenryu fan, your man has certainly had better days, to say the least. By the way, is it just me or did it look like Takano raided the Beverly Brothers' wardrobe closet for that awful purple jacket he wore to the ring?
- 7 replies
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- SWS
- October 30
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I liked this match a lot better when they were trying to break each other's legs than when they were trading nearfalls at the end. I understand that a house style requires certain moves or sequences of moves, and AJW's house style requires a lot of high flying, particularly at the very beginning and the very end of matches. But to have that finishing sequence after Toyota and Yamada had spent the first half of the bout turning each other's knees into Cream of Wheat was a bit hard to take, especially since the submission holds looked so legitimately painful. If they'd switched halves and done the high-flying close pinfall stuff first, then taken it to the mat, realizing that the only way to survive for each of them was to take out the other's legs, the match would have fit together a whole lot better, in my opinion. Both ladies worked hard, and there were almost no dead spots even though they went a full half-hour, which is a rarity. But since the two halves of the bout had almost nothing to do with each other, and in fact could have each been halves of a different match altogether. the whole experience leaves me a bit unfulfilled. Flik mentioned above (if I'm not mistaken) that this is the seventh Toyota/Yamada match he's seen, and they've all been draws. I'd like to have seen one of those to notice if it was worked any differently than this one was, and if so how. It seems almost like these two had a formula and stuck with it for the most part.
- 7 replies
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- AJW
- September 7
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[1991-11-02-WCW-Saturday Night] Interview: Van Hammer
garretta replied to Loss's topic in November 1991
This is what the Ultimate Warrior would have been like if he'd taken up heavy metal. Seriously, that's who this guy reminds me of. Substitute "little Warriors" for "Hammerheads" and make the hair just a bit more blonde, and they'd be twins. Let's just hope that this guy is somewhere close to Warrior as a worker, although from his look I have my doubts. That T-shirt didn't look like it would have fit JR in a million years. "Vantastic" is living proof that the WWF isn't the only promotion ever to come up with an idiotic catch phrase that's destined to live in wrestling infamy.- 8 replies
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- WCW
- Saturday Night
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[1991-10-29-SWS] Genichiro Tenryu vs Yoshiaki Yatsu
garretta replied to Loss's topic in October 1991
This was simply two old friends and rivals pounding the hell out of each other until they couldn't anymore. Tenryu gave Yatsu more of this than I thought he would, and at least once I thought he'd been legitimately knocked out by Yatsu's assault on his head and neck, which might have looked a little sloppy but proved to be effective. Their strike exchanges were tremendous, and Vince must have sent over some of his surplus sound equipment, because you could hear the chops and kicks echo all over the place. It's a bit odd that Tenryu hit the powerbomb so early, then had to do it again at the finish, but perhaps that was the house style. I didn't know that the types of slaps Tenryu used to set up the finishing powerbomb had a name or a strategic purpose. The things you learn on this board!- 10 replies
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This looked like a squash for the Dragon at first, but Salvaje impressed me; I'd never heard of him before this bout, but he looked like a nifty junior worker in his own right, getting a particularly big nearfall when he turned an attempted Dragon headscissors into a powerbomb. In the end, Dragon was just a little too good for him and scored a surprisingly hard-fought victory. My favorite Dragon dive was the moonsault off the apron, which looked particularly snazzy. How Vince couldn't figure out a way to use someone this good at least as a midcard attraction on a couple of American tours a year I don't know .
- 9 replies
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- SWS
- October 29
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[1991-08-11-NJPW-G1 Climax] Masa Chono vs Keiji Muto
garretta replied to Loss's topic in August 1991
I'm not really enough of a puroresu expert to compare All-Japan and New Japan, but this felt more like an All-Japan match to me, which isn't a knock at all. There was the same level of intensity that you'd expect from a big Hansen or Jumbo bout. It's a little more respectful, which is appropriate given the high stakes and also the fact that both men are faces. Some other posters have mentioned the build, and that's very noticeable here. The matwork in the open builds to the middle which builds to the nearfalls at the end. It's all predictable in a way, but Muto and Chono execute it so well that the audience still eats it up. Each man gets his own piece of the pie down the stretch, as first Chono tries the STF twice but can't beat Mutoh, then Mutoh has numerous chances but can't beat Chono. His second try for the moonsault proves to be his undoing, as Chono raises his knees to knock the wind out of Mutoh, then powerbombs him for the win. The postmatch celebration with the flying seat cushions was awesome in the literal sense of the word. I'm too partial to WarGames, Warrior/Savage, and Hogan/Slaughter Desert Storm to call this my Match of the Year, but it's certainly in my Top Five, and it's definitely my Japanese singles bout of the year to date (I've watched through late October).- 17 replies
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- NJPW
- G-1 Climax
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I understood the rules clearly enough after I read this thread, but what was Caras still doing at ringside after he'd won his way out of the match? Maybe they explained it on commentary, but my Spanish isn't good enough to follow speakers who talk as fast as these announcers. Obviously, he was instrumental in sparing Konnan's hair, but why did he do what he did? The world may never know for sure. I expected more of a triple threat-style match with all three in the ring, but this was worked more like a three-man round robin, with the odd man out getting the haircut. It sould have been interesting to see what they would have done in case of a three-way tie. The action here wasn't bad, but the individual bouts didn't last long enough for me to get a feel for them. Kudos to Perro for blading, which added at least a little drama to the proceedings. Add the referee stuff at the beginning to the list of things I didn't understand at all. It's obvious that there was some sort of history between Konnan and the original ref, though. Does anyone know what it might be? I think I would have preferred this to have all three men in the ring at the same time so they could all shift alliances as needed. As it was, the same purpose could have been served with three distinct, full-length singles matches. By the way, is it a sign of honor in Mexico for the loser of a hair match to shave his own head? I've always assumed it was, since I've seen babyfaces who have lost this type of match do it, but I don't know for sure.
- 10 replies
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- CMLL
- September 6
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This was the story of Misawa coming back from a possible career-ending injury to not only beat Jumbo, but make him submit, which has almost never happened before. Jumbo and Taue were at their most vicious here, working over Kawada in a similar fashion to the way they worked over Kikuchi in the last big tag match between the two sides. But both Kawada and Misawa showed a ton of heart; Kawada for absorbing a seemingly endless two-on-one, and Misawa for ignoring a damaged, unprotected shoulder and executing moves that most similarly injured wrestlers wouldn't have even attempted in an effort to take Jumbo down. To finally get a submission out of him after trying valiantly in singles, tags, and six-mans for so long only to fall short just made the moment all the sweeter, although both sides knew there were more battles to come. One thing that added to the atmosphere was the wrapping on Misawa's shoulder. I definitely bought the idea that the ringboys doing the wrapping saw what was happening to Kawada in the ring and rushed the job so much that it was ineffective and started unraveling the second Misawa went back to action. Knowing that the only thing the tape provided was a weapon for Jumbo and Taue to use against him, Misawa decided to rip it off and take his chances, which only made the battle he fought and eventually won even more heroic. Fantastic storytelling. Which set of tag belts were Misawa and Kawada defending here? I'm a little rusty on my Japanese tag team title hierarchy.
- 12 replies
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- AJPW
- September 4
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[1991-11-09-USWA-Memphis TV] Interview: Jerry Lawler
garretta replied to Loss's topic in November 1991
The title match with Jeff intrigues me more than the match with Travis's "Superteam"/ Who ended up teaming with Gaylord, anyway? Jeff's wrestled Lawler before for the title, of course, but that was when Lawler was (at least technically) a heel. A respectful babyface match between the two sounds like something worth checking out, if only to see whether the respectful tone can be maintained when the going gets rough. I wonder if they were planning to see if Jeff could handle a sustained run in top? I ask this because Lawler doesn't talk about how Fargo passed the torch to him all that often, so I'm wondering if there was supposed to be a special significance to him doing it here. This promo had some neat biographical and historical stuff. I didn't know that Lawler's first appearance on a wrestling show came through his art work, or that he's brought more fan into the MSC than either Elvis or the Beatles (though I don't doubt it's true, considering that he appears there almost every week). Also nice to hear Lance mentioned, which doesn't happen all that often either these days. -
[1991-11-02-USWA-Memphis TV] Interview: Jerry Lawler
garretta replied to Loss's topic in November 1991
Welcome to The Jerry Lawler Fish in A Barrel Hour. I don't think this match was made to have a match; I think it was made to give Lawler good material for Saturday morning. You can say that about Travis too, truthfully. The problem is, if Embry won't lay down for Lawler, as apparently he won't, what else can you do? Papa's trying to make the best out of a bad situation by spinning Embry off into a feud with Prichard and giving Lawler some stiffs he can beat and insult with relative ease while waiting for the next big thing to come along. As plans go, it's not the worst ever conceived in wrestling history. Who's the character standing in the wings whom Lawler "doesn't have a problem with........yet"? He looks big and imposing, but I can't place him. I wonder who he wants to see later in the program. -
[1991-11-09-WWF-Superstars] Beverly Brothers and Jim Neidhart
garretta replied to Loss's topic in November 1991
Thanks, Matt! It's a wonder they didn't at least let Bret have a non-title bout or two with one of the three of them for old time's sake. Neither Enos nor Bloom was ever going to be a singles contender of any sort, let alone Lanny, but it would have been a nice nod to history. -
[1991-11-09-WWF-Superstars] Beverly Brothers and Jim Neidhart
garretta replied to Loss's topic in November 1991
I have no idea what to make of this. It seemed like a way to establish Enos and Bloom as sneaks, but even if Pete's reasons were correct as far as real life goes, was there ever any attempt to explain their actions from a storyline standpoint? I've never heard of a New Foundation/Beverlys feud; if there was one, it didn't make any pay-per-views that I recall. I don't even think Owen came in for a few more months. -
[1991-11-03-WWF-Wrestling Challenge] Barber Shop: Hulk Hogan
garretta replied to Loss's topic in November 1991
Actually, the idea of multiple feuds at once wasn't so bad; Flair himself had done it in JCP for years. What made it a bad thing in the end was that neither program got the blowoff it really deserved. Both of them had the potential to be WrestleMania main events. All Vince had to do was pick one and watch the tickets fly. The ideal for the longtime fans would have been Hogan/Flair, but Savage/Flair was nothing to sneeze at when it came to dream matches either. Combine that with Hogan/Taker in a bodybag or casket match and you have a Mania for the ages. Instead, neither feud was blown off, and we got Hogan/Sid instead, which was basically a way to give Hogan a "retirement" win with no lasting consequences for the WWF long-term. As for this particular interview, we're back to Hogan in Immortal mode, dealing out the death references thick and fast. Beefcake's in the role he plays best, which is chief stooge and cheerleader, and the whole thing's as cheesy as you'd expect. To Kevin's point, Beefcake's intro for Hogan seems a bit off because he has to shoehorn a "survivor" reference into it, since we're talking about Survivor Series. That event alone has produced some of the most tortured interviews in wrestling history, as everyone involved MUST use the word "survive" about every third word during any promo they cut from late September on, lest the marks forget the name of the card. No sound from Gino and Bobby at all? Were they taking a mutual bathroom break or what? -
[1991-11-09-WWF-Superstars] Sgt. Slaughter vignette
garretta replied to Loss's topic in November 1991
I'm out of both words and patience. If this was a few years later, Sarge would have been a bigger heel than ever just because he's acting so sappily about losing his country. As it stands, this is just excruciating. I'm seriously wondering if a parents' group somewhere was giving Vince problems about not being "educational" enough, and this was his middle finger to them. I've run out of other plausible explanations for this stuff. -
[1991-11-03-WWF-Wrestling Challenge] Sgt. Slaughter vignette
garretta replied to Loss's topic in November 1991
Whoever thought that this kind of vignette was enough to turn Sarge without any other type of action on his part that we know about ought to have been fired. If it was Vince himself......well, it's not typical of him, that's all I can say. I can't believe they're not pushing a feud with Sarge and Sheik/Adnan, even though the matches are virtually guaranteed to be horrible by this point. At least have Duggan, your resident non-Hogan superpatriot, give him a thumbs-up and a "HOOOOOOOOO!" if nothing else. As I just said, this kind of sloppy execution isn't like Vince at all, and it shows you just how big of a priority Sarge really was at this time, which is to say none. He'd have been better off doing his turn for WCW. -
[1991-11-03-WWF-Wrestling Challenge] Ultimate Warrior Slim Jim Commercial
garretta replied to Loss's topic in November 1991
The copyright date on this commercial was '89, so these were two years old or better. I'm not sure that Vince had veto power over which ads his sponsors used, but I have to believe that they at least gave him a heads up that the one they were choosing to use at that time featured a former employee. The only thing Warrior said that I understood was "Snap into it!", which is probably one reason why he didn't last long as a Slim Jim spokesman. The visual effects were nice enough, but I agree with Loss; how this commercial would ever appeal to anyone who wasn't a diehard wrestling fan under the age of twelve I have no idea. -
[1991-11-02-WWF-Superstars] Funeral Parlor: The Undertaker
garretta replied to Loss's topic in November 1991
I'm sure Vince didn't plan it this way, but Percy actually takes away from Taker's scariness with the campy way he talks and acts. The trouble is, this gimmick absolutely needs not only a manager, but an out-of-the-ordinary manager. A Heenan or DiBiase type won't cut it; the closest thing they had at the time other than Percy was Fuji, who was totally useless by now and would be until Yokozuna came along to give his career an unexpected shot in the arm. (Could you imagine Fuji cackling, "You suffer, boy-san. Very very dead. Hulkamania is sayonara!") Kudos to Calloway for taking this a thousand percent seriously; the only slight hint that the guy's human is a trace of a Texas accent which you can only hear if you listen for it. Other than that, he's completely believable as one of the undead. I can only imagine what this gimmick would have turned into in less dedicated hands. Other than that, we've seen all this before, including the casket customization, which was done better for Warrior. I would have appreciated a hint of a Flair/Taker alliance given what's to come at Survivor Series, but there are still three weeks of buildup to go. -
[1991-10-27-WCW-Halloween Havoc] WCW Phantom and Paul E. Dangerously
garretta replied to Loss's topic in October 1991
I've read the stuff about Corny elsewhere, Loss. I wonder how different a WCW version of Camp Cornette would have looked from the Dangerous Alliance. I'd have to guess Stan and Bobby would have been back together as the MX, but I really can't see Corny with Rude, Austin or Zbyszko. Arn would have been a natural, though. As for Flair, he was a better fit with Heenan on paper, but with Bobby not wanting to stay at ringside, Corny would have been a better replacement than Hennig by a million miles. Of course, JJ Dillon was right there in the front office, but Vince was supposedly scared that him appearing with Flair would have led fans to demand the reform of the Horsemen, which might not have been the worst idea if they could have found the right guys. Since the common thread at the time was an issue with Hogan, my group would have been (without regard to the roles established by the original group in JCP) Flair, Jake, Taker, and DiBiase. Not the ideal Horsemen group by Crockett standards, but one hell of a WWF heel stable for sure.- 11 replies
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- WCW
- Halloween Havoc
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I could have done without the street lingo, but I enjoyed Hogan's defiant attitude here. This isn't TBS; Hogan doesn't need to kowtow to Flair and talk about how great he is during interviews; if anything, the humility should be coming from Flair toward Hogan, not that we'd ever see that. The point is, it's Flair who's showed up in Hogan's neighborhood and is trying to take it over, so it's Hogan who gets to set the boundaries and define the rules of engagement. If he wants to claim that he "built" MSG, who the hell's going to stop him? If Flair thinks he's man enough, Hulkamania's waiting for him. Does anybody else think that Bret got his famous catchphrase from this very interview? Since Flair stole "Whatcha gonna do?" at MSG, Hogan steals "Whoooooo!" and "Now we go to school!" here. This feud really feels like it's going to be a bigger deal than it actually turned out to be in the grand scheme of things, so at least Vince has gotten the build right so far, which is more than I thought he did.
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[1991-10-28-WWF-MSG, NY] Ric Flair vs Roddy Piper / Interview: Ric Flair
garretta replied to Loss's topic in October 1991
This felt off to me somehow. I wasn't expecting JCP Flair circa 1985, but there was something almost too desperate about how Flair wrestled this match. I know he's very seldom gotten anything close to a clean win since forever, but if ever Flair needed a semi-clean pin at the least, it was now, with Hogan looming on the horizon next month on the biggest stage they would ever have in the WWF. To be more specific, Flair should have gotten the pin with the chair shot, and Piper should have done a stretcher job after Flair put the figure-four on him postmatch and held it for at least two or three minutes. That way, Vince's need to have heels almost always cheat to win would have been satisfied, and Flair still would have gotten over as someone who could injure Hogan and end Hulkamania for good. Instead, Flair's shown to need to cheat just to survive against an opponent who's tougher and more manly, and should be a total pushover for Hogan. Nothing new, you say? No, but remember that when Flair pulled that act most of the time for Crockett and Turner, he did it to protect the World title, which made it understandable. Here, what on earth is he protecting? The belt he wears means nothing now, and Gino and His Lordship's plaudits aside, he showed next to none of the wrestling skills he supposedly has in this bout, which he always did for Crockett and Turner even at his most cowardly. To put it bluntly, it seemed that Piper would have wiped the floor with him but good if Flair had only fought fair. I think we've finally hit on one of the reasons Hogan-Flair didn't draw on the house show circuit. If Flair wrestled like this against Piper, and everyone knows that Survivor Series is coming up (which, don't forget, cost thirty dollars just to rent, before any pay-per-view parties one may have chosen to throw), and Hogan is wrestling Flair at the local arena within two weeks of the pay-per-view on either side, which card are you going to choose if you can only afford one, especially with Savage's reinstatement being teased and Hogan defending against the much scarier and more physically imposing Taker? I know which one I'd choose, and I watched TBS enough to know exactly who Flair was and what he was about. As I said earlier, if the "title" of Real World Champion was on the line, even in the same way the Million Dollar Belt was at SummerSlam (which obviously would have meant using another belt) I could have understood this finish, but not under these circumstances. Was I the only one who thought that Heenan looked like he had no idea what to do at ringside? Maybe it was just rust, but he wasn't himself at all. They tried to use distraction spots, but if he was distracting anyone on this night, it was by reputation alone. He'd have been better off staying at ringside with Gino and Alfred, cheerleading for Flair as only he could. I don't think Flair got the standing ovation Gino claims he got, but he sure got a lot bigger response than most people not named Hogan got in WWF arenas at this time. Also, I wouldn't be too hard on Gino's comment that it was Flair's lifelong dream to work at MSG. Most wrestlers would have given their intimate parts to work in New York, even if they were megastars elsewhere. Besides, Flair's bout there fifteen years before barely counts; who's Pete Sanchez compared to Roddy Piper? I liked the commentary here otherwise. They put Flair over without drooling too much over him undeservedly, the way JR and Tony did at times in WCW. I wonder if Flair got in trouble for using the "Whatcha gonna do?" schtick against Hogan during his interview after the match. One would think that Hogan wouldn't exactly care for that, never mind the use of the insider term "Hulk up". -
If I'd just seen the arena footage, I would have been convinced that Embry was the one they were trying to turn face. I've never seen three miscommunication spots so close together in my life (for whatever reason, no one acknowledged the first one). I actually found myself sympathizing with Embry until I heard his interview, and Papa must have been afraid of that, because Embry's extra sleazy, going so far as to call Tennessee women fat egg-sucking dogs. By contrast, we get a relatively calm, rational promo from Dr. Tom. It's not a face promo by any means, but it's a calm, cool rebuttal to Embry the likes of which we've needed to see for quite a while. I liked him talking about the Piper soundalike stuff, too. He does sound like Piper, even when he's using his natural voice, and he can't help it. But he reassures the public that what he says is his own invention. Personally, I think there have been times, especially now, that Prichard's actually more articulate than Piper, who's starting to become a real caricature of the man he used to be, particularly on the stick. I'd be a lot more concerned about him doing a Piper impersonation if he tried to wrestle like Piper, but he doesn't, at least no more than any heel wrestles like another. Based on Dr. Tom's comments, it seems like like they're trying to do a "clean" Prichard vs. "dirty" Embry comparison when it comes to lifestyle, and I hope they stay away from that. The "milk drinker", if you will, almost always seems like a wimp or a square compared to the "whiskey drinker", who comes off as more manly by comparison. Let's just leave this as two heels who want to beat the living crap out of each other and have done with it. No face in Memphis should want to get within ten miles of either of these guys for a good long while, if ever. Does anybody know who Doug Masters is? I have a feeling that Memphis fans are supposed to be familiar with him, being that he brawled with Marlin on the outside while Embry and Prichard had their squabble in the ring, but I've honestly never heard the name before now.
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[1991-10-27-WCW-Halloween Havoc] WCW Phantom and Paul E. Dangerously
garretta replied to Loss's topic in October 1991
This one had way too much screaming for my tastes, considering who was doing it. Heyman I could buy as pissed off under the circumstances, but what the hell happened to Rude? He's much better as a smooth-talking sleazeball than he is as a screaming, slobbering maniac. I guess Dusty must have liked the "new Rude" stuff we saw in the WWF last year, because that's who we've got here. Unfortunately, most of what made Rude different was lost in the change. Hopefully this version will be better; I've heard some good things, but I haven't seen it for myself yet. Nice to see Medusa, but that probably means the Rude Awakenings are out the window. Sorry, ladies! Actually, I might have preferred Heyman making a deal with Race to buy Luger's services. If you're heading to the top, why make the U.S. title your main focus? Why not have the World champion as your main hired gun and use him to cripple Sting? Of course, considering that Luger was gone in just a few months it worked out for the best, but there was no way to know that at the time. Bischoff was actually good here, treating Heyman's rant like the hot air it was complete with eyerolls until Rude was revealed. By the way, I'll bet the part about watching Rude sitting in the back watching the World Series was a shoot; he was a native Minnesotan, of course, and that was the night of Game 7, when the Twins beat the Braves, of all teams, to win the Series.- 11 replies
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